Although representatives of the World Muslim League (WML) had announced a donation of USD 5 million to support victims of the Easter Sunday attacks in July 2019, the Catholic Church was not aware of further progress of this initiative, Director of Sethsarana, the charity wing of the catholic church, Father Nishantha Lawrence Ramanayake informed the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks on Thursday.
He said that the WML had made this announcement at the National Conference on Peace, Harmony and Coexistence at Nelum Pokuna held in July 2019.
Fr. Ramanayake said the announcement of the funding decision was made before the then president Maithripala Sirisena, former western province governor A. J. M Muzammil and other dignitaries, by WML Secretary General, Dr. Mohommad Bin Abdulkarim Alissa.
The witness said during the conference, former President Maithripala Sirisena had received a symbolic dummy of a cheque mentioning USD 5 million.
After making this announcement before higher officials of the previous government, we haven’t received any update about the funding process. We don’t even know whether the previous government got those funds or not,” Father Ramanayake said.
Testifying before the Commission on Thursday (24) night, the witness said that before announcing the above initiative at the conference, the WML had informed this to Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith.
Senior DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon said today that those who fail to wear face masks in public places would be arrested and sent for self quarantine from tomorrow. He said nearly 7,000 people have been warned in the Western Province for not wearing face masks. DIG Tennakoon said arrests would be made under quarantine regulations.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed that 19 more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 as of 2.30 pm today (27).
The latest coronavirus infections have moved the tally to 2,033.
The Department of Government Information said all of these patients are arrivals from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 recoveries confirmed in Sri Lanka increased to 1,639 earlier today as 20 patients were discharged from hospitals.
According to the Epidemiology Unit’s statistics, 383 active cases are currently under medical care at several hospitals across the country.
Eleven patients have succumbed to the virus to date.
A commission will be appointed to look into the financial misconducts and irregularities in the loans provided by state banks during the government of Good Governance, says Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
This decision was reached during a meeting with the employees’ union of the Bank of Ceylon at the Temple Trees.
The Premier also heeded the issue of pension of current state bank employees. He assured them that solutions will be provided to the matter through a committee, without delay.
Defence Secretary Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne has reiterated that punitive actions would be initiated without delay against prison, law enforcement and other officials, who were found to have abused official powers through corrupt practices, abetting and collaborating with underworld criminals and drug traffickers.
He said the law enforcement authorities have already taken all measures to identify those uniformed men who were abusing powers vested with them, to get involved in corrupt practices.
When we were in the military academy, we were taught that the most dangerous enemy is the enemy within. We now need to identify and confirm the enemy within us to eradicate the drug menace. Otherwise, it will be a futile effort”, the Defence Secretary said.
Addressing a gathering at the foundation laying ceremony held to establish a new rehabilitation centre at the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB), at Nittambuwa, on Friday (26), he assured to take all necessary measures to eradicate drug menace in Sri Lanka soon, the Ministry of Defence said.
The Defence Secretary said drug addicts needed sympathy, support and assistance to get rehabilitated to reintegrate into the society to lead productive lives.
The fully-fledged rehabilitation centre, which is targeted to rehabilitate nearly 1,000 drug addicts, will be constructed with the assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The event was also held to mark the ‘International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking’, which falls on June 26.
While stating that the underworld and drug dealers should be ashamed of feeding their families using the money earned by abetting wrongdoings, the Defence Secretary noted that eliminating drug menace was a mammoth task and needed to bring all the notorious drug kingpins to book to do justice to the future generation.
The Defence Secretary stressed that the first corrective measure should be at rescuing children who had fallen prey, the second was saving the future generations and the third was to identify those who abuse the respective official capacity by abetting the wrongdoers.
Chairman NDDCB Dr. Laknath Welagedara said the NDDCB, which had been in operation for 36-years since 1984, was expanding treatments and rehabilitation facilities in order to ‘build a drug-free, healthy and secured nation’, the first response onto the nation’s policy of prosperous country following the vision of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
He said the new building, ‘Nawa Diganthaya’ for treatment and rehabilitation centre, would be built in partnership with the Government of Germany and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) while the construction being undertaken by the Sri Lanka Navy.
Deputy Ambassador of Germany Andreas Berg said Germany was supporting the initiative as a part of a much larger project strengthening the capacity of Sri Lanka to prevent and counter-terrorism and violent extremism through effective criminal justice responses.
The expansion of this rehabilitation centre reflects the fourth pillar of the larger project and this is to strengthening capability and capacity in the prison sector”, he said.
Berg said the expansion of NDDCB’s new facility would support the government’s efforts to decongest prisons, in which a high number of drug users are being currently held.
He further said the project would complement the efforts by the government to tackle the challenges of drug menace in the country and consider treatment not as a method of punishment in addressing the issue.
We are looking forward to working in partnership with the government, UNODC, civil society, judiciary and prison officials in curbing drug and drug abuse and violent extremism,” he said.
Head of Global Maritime Crime Program of the UNODC Alan Cole said since the land routes for drug trafficking had been restricted amidst the COVID-19 lockdowns, maritime routes become more attractive for drug traffickers while placing Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) at the forefront in the regional fight against the drug trafficking.
Assuring to provide advice curbing organized crimes in prisons and drug menace Cole hailed the government’s new strategy to take them out of the prison system and initiatives introduced to rehabilitate them.
Foreign Affairs Ministry Secretary Ravinatha Ariyasinghe, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva, Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Maj. Gen.(Retd) Darshana Hettiarachchi, Commissioner General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya, Defence Ministry’s Additional Secretary Malika Sooriyapperuma were also present at the occasion.
Imagine for a moment Gunadasa Ameresekera,
last of our novelist in the great tradition, writing a tirade against the
Muslims, giving it the title F*** you, Mr. Rauf Hakeem”. Imagine if it is
published in a leading Sinhala newspaper. Can you imagine the reaction? The
entire phalanx of the NGO moralists would come out screaming like bats out of
hell to condemn it. In one voice they will argue that this is not the language
for reconciliation, peace or to maintain common decency. Prof. Savitri
Gunasekera, Prof. Arjuna Aluvihare, her side-kick, Dayan Jayatilleka, Paki
Saravanamuttu, Jehan (Pacha) Perera and their fellow-travellers will denounce
it from roof -tops. Even
NGOs, Ingos, Yasmin Sooka, ICJ et al will front up before international media
to brand it as virulent Sinhala nationalism, a century-old phenomenon one
could trace back, to name just one person, to Don David Hewawitharane, also
known as Anagarika Dharmapala”, or weep saying the Muslim is today’s object of
Sinhala nationalist war of terror.”
The quote above was written by Prof. Quadri
Ismail, who teaches English at the Minnesota University, USA. He didn’t stop
his accusations against Sinhala-Buddhists at that. He went all out to
hurl abuse at President Gotabaya Rajapakse. He told him: F*** you, Mr.
President!” He labelled Sinhala-Buddhists as a***holes”.
Sinhala-Buddhist had said many things about the minorities but I can’t recall
anyone of them spitting foul obscenities on any Tamil or Muslim leader. Nor can
I remember Tamils or Muslims being called a***holes” by any Sinhalese. The
minorities may have been called pariahs” at worst by the Sinhalese. But that,
of course, is a Tamil word used by Tamils to describe their own outcastes
The Professori’s article was carried in the
on-line publication, GROUNDVIEW— the micro-mini organ of Pakiasothy
Saravanamuttu. At all times he parades as the high priest of public morality.
He also claims to provide decent alternatives to indecent politics. His Centre
for Policy Alternative has been pontificating on the need for
decent discourse on public affairs. But when it comes to
Sinhala-Buddhists and the Rajapakses he delights in abusing them with no-holds-barred
obscenities. Obviously, the Professori and Paki” seem to be birds of a
feather who suck together! What is equally obnoxious is that the Professori has
nothing new to say in demonising the Sinhala-Buddhists and, in particular, the
President. In his piece he has been vomiting the same old anti-Sinhala-Buddhist
venom expectorated earlier by his partisan hacks in the NGO circuit.
Apart from that, he has brought the English
Department of the MU into disrepute by abusing those whom he hates with the
four-letter words. It is not the lack of refinement that is worrying. After
all, the F-word” has many uses. One of them has been to release the frustrations
and anger of pompous professoris who have failed to find the mot
juste to target their bete noirs. At a higher
level, it gained a celebrity status when D. H. Lawrence used it in Lady
Chatterly’s Lover. The use of it was challenged in courts and it passed
the test with flying colours at the trial. In the Lawretian sense, with shades
of Freud kicking in, it acquired an earthiness and respectability.
Lawrence picked the F-word appropriately to
express the rawness of Lady Chatterly’s sensuous relationship with her virile
gardener – unlike her paralysed husband — watering her grassy patch. When
Lawrence uses it, it is literature. When our Professori uses it, it’s an
obscenity because it is packed with hate. Anything packed with hate is an
obscenity. When our Professori used the cheapest word in the richest language
of the world to express his anger it means that he has either to (1) go for
some training in anger management or (2) go for a refresher course in English
to express his anger with a more effective and elegant verbal punch in keeping
with the declaration of the English Department of MU: enlarging our
understanding of the human condition and power of creative imagination.”
What is offensive is the Professori’s
inexcusable crudity which arises from his inability to express his anger in
measured tones and tempered terminology. That is appalling. It is possible to
tolerate it if it came as an explosion of anger at the sophomoronic level but
not from the professoriate of the English Department of MU. By using that trite
obscenity, he is obviously trying to emphasize his anger with what he thinks is
the most effective weapon in his verbal armoury. In other words, he is trying
to impress that he is master of the English language who put the U” in KCUF!
His use of the four-letter word is a
reflection on the standards maintained by the English Department of MU. It
boasts that by studying or creating literature in English we enlarge our
understanding of the human condition and power of creative imagination.” This
statement is inspiring and incontrovertible. But in what way has the MU
Professori contributed to its ideals? Leaving aside all other considerations,
it is only fair to judge him by the ideals outlined by MU.
The first question that comes to mind is: How
can a member of the MU’s professoriate enlarge our understanding of the human
condition and power of creative imagination” by spitting the
anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology he had swallowed from the hate-mongers of his
ilk. Among the Sri Lankan literati he is known to have circulated in circles
that lived on a diet dished out by anti-Sinhala-Buddhist NGOs – a diet that
consisted mainly of the grass that came out of the other end of bull. So, it is
not surprising that there isn’t a single original thought in his bitter attack
that can elevate him to the ideals laid out in the laudable declaration of MU.
Second, how can anyone enlarge our
understanding of the human condition” when it is laced with only venomous hate
– all of which is encapsulated in F*** you, Mr. President”? He would also know
that when he spits at the President he is also spitting at the nation – in
particular, the Sinhala-Buddhist voters who elected him. He should also know
that in the overheated inter-ethnic environment of Sri Lanka his vulgarity can
be explosive. It is provocative and the Professori has no moral right to act as
a pyromaniac throwing verbal sparks into a field saturated in Wahabist/Arabic
fuel.
For the sake of those who had not read his
bitter bile let me summarise it. The first thing to note is that the Professori
too has joined the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist queue that is raving and ranting
against the newly elected President, Gotabaya Rajapakse, who won the
Presidential election on November 19, 2019 exclusively on the Sinhala-Buddhist
vote. It is a victory that has stunned Professori’s mob, the Muslims, who
claimed that they were the makers-and- breakers of governments with their
minority votes.
The victory of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority
has thrown off balance the two major minorities – the Tamils and the Muslims.
The Muslims who always had a share in one or the other governments in the past
have suddenly found themselves without even a toe-hold in the present
administration. The loss of political leverage by not being in the government
is unbearable to them. Their reaction to the majority winning on its own is
predictable: they are crying that the Sinhala-Buddhist majority is overpowering
the minorities. This, however, is only fear-mongering – a common game played by
minorities against majorities. But in case it happens who is to be blamed? The
minorities boastfully joined the anti-Rajapakse side hoping to dictate their
terms and conditions as king-makers. But when they lost the election they also
lost the power to manipulate power at the centre. Their next move was to cry
foul and complain that majoritarianism is threatening the minority – an
allegation which is yet to be proved. Well, as in all politics, those who make
the bed can’t refuse to lie on it, can they?
On top of losing the political clout they had
in the past, the Muslims are facing the anger of the nation for breeding
covertly the multi-millionaire Muslim terrorists who, for no reason arising
from local conditions, blew up Churches on Easter Sunday (2019) killing 270
Tamils and Sinhala worshippers. Our Professori is now angry that there is a
backlash against the Muslims as a result of the brutalities caused by some of
the richest terrorists of the world, next, of course, to Osama bin Laden.
The angry reaction that has stirred the
nation against Muslims is predictable. The aggressive and provocative actions
of a minority trying to impose their will on the majority ineluctably causes
friction and tensions. The government has kept the lid on it preventing any
violent reaction against the innocent Muslim civilians. No mass murders of
Muslims have taken place despite the angry reaction of the Buddhist monks and
the public at large against the Muslims in the wake of Muslim terrorists
blowing up innocent civilians. However, when the Professori points a finger at
the Sinhala-Buddhists he fails to realise that the other four are pointing at
him. He paints all those whom he hates (mainly the Sinhala-Buddhists) as
a***holes”. He also declares that they should be effed” from the President
downwards. In the same breath, he proclaims that he considers dissent a
virtue”. If so why does he label dissentients whom he hates (mainly the
Sinhala-Buddhists) as a***holes”? He even insists on penetrating forcibly
his bete noirs with circumcised sausages. What is the
virtue in that, eh Professori?
He is also
bitter that the Buddhist monks and the majority have reacted angrily at the
Muslims by staging public protests against the Muslim leaders holding public
office – leaders who are being investigated for maintaining close political
links with the Muslim terrorists. The Presidential Commission of Inquiry
probing the Easter Sunday morning bombings was told that Rifkhan Bathiudeen,
brother of former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, had assisted National Thowheed
Jamaath (NTJ) Leader, Zahran Hashim in fleeing to India by sea in 2018. (The
Island).
They launched
the Arabification of the East with the fanciful notion of creating a Wahabist
caliphate for the Muslims. Also, with Saudi money, madrassas mushroomed to
radicalise young Muslims. Books were distributed to school children instructing
them to kill Muslims who change their religion and cut the hands off of those
who steal. In November 2018 they killed two Policemen in Vavunathivu,
Batticoloa. In a provocative act, Muslim radicals vandalised Buddhist statues,
a la Bamian barbarism, in central Mawanella. Muslim leaders are accused of
raping the virgin forest of Wilpattu to plant Muslims who destroy the
environment. These and other violent acts have roused fears and suspicions
about the next move of the Muslims.
It is the irrational crimes committed by the
Muslim terrorists that have provoked the wrath of public at large against those
wearing the hijab, nijab, abaya and bisht, the long white robe worn by men.
Besides, the
Muslims have generated fears, suspicions and anger against them through their
own violent actions. It is a global phenomenon. But with his cock-and-bull
theories the Professori tries to make out that the anger against the Muslims is
vicious reaction of only the Sinhala-Buddhists. In support of this accusation
he traces the origins of anti-Muslim anger to Anagarika Dharmapala, who revived
Sinhala-Buddhism as an anti-colonial, anti-Western ideology over a century ago.
Pretending to be a political scientist who knows the undercurrents of the
social forces at play he says: The Rajapaksas, of course, don’t bear sole responsibility
for virulent Sinhala nationalism, a century-old phenomenon one could trace
back, to name just one person, to Don David Hewawitharane, also known as
Anagarika Dharmapala.”
This is
hilarious. He is parroting the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist venom that was first
bruited by G. G. Ponnambalam in the thirties. It was his attack on the Mahavamsa and
Sinhala-Buddhist history that sparked off the first racial riots in Ceylon, as
it was known then. And the Professori wants to be taken seriously for
regurgitating the hatred propagated by an antiquated Tamil politician from the
Jurassic Park.
I do not know whether Minnesota University is
a chunk hived off this earth and fired out to float among the debris
circulating in outer space. But if the Professori’s feet are planted firmly on
our planet he would know that the Muslims should take full responsibility for
the fear they have created among citizens of the world wherever they may be.
The Muslims have brought down the wrath of
the public upon themselves with their violent politics. In Sri Lanka they lived
amicably with the rest until they began to aggressively confront the rest with
their new radicalism, rituals, practices, dress code, and violent
anti-Sinhala-Buddhist politics threatening their traditional place in history.
Even in Kattankuddy the traditional Muslims resisted the violent aggression of
Wahabist radicalism. In fact, Zaharan had to flee from the East and hide in
Mawanella and Kurunegala. Was the internecine warfare between the traditional
Muslims and the Zaharan’s also caused by Dharmapala? Is the global antagonism
towards Muslims also caused by Dharmapala? The vast majority of the innocent
Muslims too have become victims of the ideological fanaticism and
indiscriminate violence of a few suicidal maniacs who are in a hurry to lift
their bisht and go between the legs of virgins – an issue that needs to be
explored by our Professori who is obsessed with Fraud – oops, Freud!
The last thing the nation needs now is
provocative obscenities from a trousered mullah in Minnesota. If he is
genuinely interested in serving the interests of the Muslims should he provoke
the Sinhala-Buddhists with his obscenities? Can he explain how his obscenities
can help the security of the Muslims? Isn’t he merely showing off that he is a
great hero by throwing obscenities at the Sinhala-Buddhists knowing that he has
the freedom to do so in the Sinhala-Buddhist democracy? Since he displays a
serious concern about the Sri Lankan journalists, can he show us how brave he
is by holding Prince of Saudi responsible for the torture and killing of Jamal
Kashoggi? Will he also tell him to Eff-off” for this crime and get it into a
Saudi publication?
All what he has done so far is to rap the
knuckles of the Muslim terrorists who killed 279 Tamil and Sinhalese
worshippers, including 45 children, with a wet tissue. He says that the Muslims
must be understood in a global frame – its targets were Christians and
westerners – represents the antipolitical as such, solicits only antipathy from
anyone on the left or, indeed, any decent human. In their case, suicide
constitutes a passport to paradise. Since Islam prohibits suicide, they conjure
jihad as their visa.” Please note, there is no Eff-off” for the ideologically
perverted Muslim terrorists. He hurls such abuse only at the Sinhala-Buddhists
for resisting Muslim fanaticism and violence.
As stated earlier there is nothing original
in Professori’s anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ravings to convince the readers that he
is a creative product of MU. This is jejune stuff repeated umpteen times by
every Tom, Dick and Ismail. Sadly, he has proved to be nothing more than a
vulgar ventriloquist trained to repeat what his counterparts broadcast in the
NGOs circles. He is, in short, a disgrace to the Minnesota Department of
English.
Last word: Since you are unlikely to bring any kudos to the English Department of the MU why don’t you, QUADRIPED PISMAIL, go forth and multiply, activating your circumcised sausage, if it is not at a dysfunctional state these days?
By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLPP Stalwart and Convener “The Muslim Voice” – June 26th., 2020.
This will ease the demand for University entrance/education in Sri
Lanka.
This is a great support Pakistan and
Prime Minister Imran Khan is offering to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to ease the demand for University
entrance/education that many thousands of qualified AL students are bottled
necked and suffering without a place in the higher educational institutions in
Sri Lanka even though they are qualified.
At a time when Sri Lanka is trying
to bring about “CHANGES” in Social Justice, Economical Revival and
create a better knowledgeable Nation, this arrangement offered, will be a
strength of pillar to Sri Lanka, Insha Allah. I am sure that President Gotabaya
Rajapaksa and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa will put in place a “FAIR and JUST
SELECTION DUE PROCESS” for the selection of these students to be
recommended for these scholarships irrespective of PARTY POLITICS, COMMUNAL AND
RELIGIOUS BAIS and FREE from any LOBBYING POWER, Insha Allah.
“THE MUSLIM VOICE” wishes
that 50% of the scholarships should be made available to the women of all
communities represented, Insha Allah. “THE MUSLIM VOICE” wishes to
express their since thanks and gratitude to PM Imran Khan, The people of
Pakistan and the Government of Pakistan for this generous offer made.
Pakistan has always remained a true
friend of Sri Lanka since the independence of both our friendly Nations. They
proved it beyond expectation coming forward as the first Nation to support our
TRI-FORCES to eradicate the ruthless LTTE in May 2009.
A Special Note for the attention of
PM Imran Khan and the Government of Pakistan (Pakistan Higher Commissioner to
Sri Lanka) – PAKISTAN SHOULD OFFER 1000 MILKING COWS (TROPICALIZED
SHAIWAL BREED) THAT WILL SUIT BEST TO SRI LANKA’S DAIRY FARMING ON BILATERAL
AID ASSISTANCE TO REVIVE AND DEVELOP THE RURAL DAIRY FARMING AND BREEDING
INDUSTRY OF SRI LANKA TO MAKE SRI LANKA SELF SUFFICIENT IN LOCAL MILK
PRODUCTION.
“THE MUSLIM VOICE” has
been suggesting through it’s comments to Pakistan on this matter for many
months and hope that Pakistan Authorities will give some positive response to
this suggestion, Insha Allah. This will help former minister Basil Rajapaksa
and President Mahinda Rajapaksa to implement development of local agriculture
and animal husbandry, dairy farming and “RURAL ECONOMY as envisaged in the
election manifest – “VISTAS OF PROSPERITY AND SPLENDER” in 2019 and
now, Insha Allah.
People have voted me to build this country; we need to identify industries and entepreneurial businesses, and funded them during this time to bring back the economy”” -Hon: President Gotabhaya Rajapakse
None of the Sri Lankan leaders couldn’t build a country people wanted to have; President Gotabhaya is the only hope. Following media is an example which they used their platform to educate public on upcoming election.
When it comes to
development the Central Bank has the major role to play. But over the years
central has not done its national duty to move forward the country towards that
path by making creative solutions to our motherland. Now is the time to do it,
with the new leadership of the country. The leadership we have in our country
is unique and this moment is phenomenon because president’s leadership is
courageous as he is standing firm before the statements he made to public.
Public has built their trust on him than ever before. Central bank need to do
two things in this instance. National institution can show the pathway for
prosperity from the financial management and investing point of view. Secondly
they can make intelligent decisions on financial economic decisions on daily
basis towards that prosperity perspective. The simultaneous approach will
enhance objectives of financing stability of the country.Our medium and small
industries will be benefited by this approach. If central bank fail to invent
tools to rescue mid size entrepreneurs of the country it will have a ripple
effect to our economy and collapse the economy. So intervention of central bank
out of the box thinking is very important at this moment & develop the
economy of the country. They essential must introduce financial product
targeting our manufacturing and micro industries. Financing to import cars and
selling cars want help to develop the economy. It will help only to develop
individual people of the bank to move forward with promotions. That is not what
the president expect form the the people in the institution. Central bank has
the best intelligent financial expertise and this is the time to come out and
bring their expertise. Every individual has a role to play towards the vision
of the president.
The request by the
president prior week meeting with central bank officers was phenomenon.
President has every right to request that way, because he has been entrusted
with huge confidence by the public of this country. People voted the president
expecting that change, and that change is the voice of our deserving people of
this country. Enough is enough the time has come to put your
brains into work
and make use of it. There is no use of highly educated bankers of central bank
if you cannot make financial products suited to our small industries to and
agricultural sector. Most of the commercial banks make loans for well to do
business people and the bank make profits at the year end, but it will not
helpful to develop the country towards development of agricultural sector and
small industries. In my previous articles I have addressed that this is a time
for change: that change is a voice from the deserving people of this country.
My personal opinion as such the state employees are not using to this change
yet. But the president approach is the perfect voice, words, and behavior to
initiate that change. Sometimes he will have to lay off some of those employees
if they are not following the road map to prosperity vision.
Prosperity vision
is not another piece of broken promises which was brought to people by previous
Ranil and Maithree ruling to snatch the power of the country. They brought up
about number of set of promises and all of them targeted to deceive people and
snatch the power of the country. The last one was the funniest and once and for
all for the country. Which was brought up by Designer gay finance minister
Mangala Samaraweera , which was called Enterprise Sri Lanka”. The meaning was to sell entire
countries assets to private firms of locally and internationally and making the
country bankrupt. So we all aware this was the reality too place over a period
of time in this country. Our state sector public employees were not doing
anything creative, at that time. Thinking out of the box to bring our economy
towards progressive direction, wasn’t necessary, because the end result was
making the country poor and have some wealthy business people in the country.
President Gotabhaya
and previous leaders comparatively different in many ways. He has a clear laid
out plan for the development of the country. He is mobilizing state service and
resources towards it. His meetings with state service employees and visits
signifies symbolic encouragement towards objectives. This leadership we haven’t
had over a period of time. Today state service and state department aware to
perform otherwise they know they need to face consequences. President is
trustworthy, competent, committed, passionate, resilient, collaborative, and
honest. Usually in western countries these were called soft skills, but today
they are hard to earn skills and maintain. As I explained courageous leadership
of his conduct and behavior with above skills make him the very right leader to
our country.
Attorney General
Dappula de Livera has announced the prisons of the country, have become the
playgrounds of criminals and pointed out that the prison department lacked
honest and efficient officers. This is a serious comment made by top government
law officer in public, that the state prison officers are corrupted handling
drug dealers and prisons are safe heaven for them to continue their criminal
activities. The question is how can we find solutions for these activities and
implement law and order. Illegal activities have been in place at prison and
come to surface through media, then only public will aware of these type of
incidents. What can we expect from these criminals doers for the country; they
already have inflicted heavy damages to our children, public and younger
generation. We need to convict them in
courts in an expedite passion and must be given capital punishment.
Nobody will find bad about it. Human right organizations won’t find solutions
for the heavy social damage caused by these dangerous convicts to our younger
generation of the country. If a country need to be civilized and disciplined,
and to have law abiding people who in these circles need to act now. Again
towards prosperity vision” cannot achieve without sacrifices and dedicated
people.
Kabir Hashim the
former parliamentarian at Balaya Program” tried to convince public that
government is failed ruling and making in roads to a Military Junta rule. Mr.
Kabir must be a long standing politician for his people but finding faults that
way is not worth to a politician of a long standing. The people of Sri Lanka
very well aware how your group of people acted in the past in parliament.
People aware the drama you played in the previous Ranil regime. I must tell now
the country has a leadership. It is not only a leadership but courageous
leadership which means standing clear and firm in his vision and working
towards it every moment of his leadership.
Muhudu Maha
Viharaya is a national heritage of our country. According to ancient deeds
written down the land belong to temple must be allocated and preserved as a
national heritage. Some Moslem politicians want to change the historical
heritage by occupying lands of north and east for political gains, but please
don’t play games with Sri Lankan heritage. As you know over the years the
previous government did not do anything to preserve them. They encouraged the
vandalism of Buddhist statues and cultural heritage of our country. These
monuments and statues evident and they are cultural proofs our history. They
must be preserved and protected for the future. At the same time laws must
implemented preserved the integrity of them. It has to be common Tamil ancient
historical values and moslem, christianity as well.
The following
was appered in EU site regarding eligibility for GSP Plus. This is a serious
comment made by them .
Repealing
the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was a commitment made by Sri Lanka to the
European Union (EU) in the lead-up to SL’s readmission to GSP+ as well as to the
UNHRC in April 2019”
This is a
serious comment and this is the way they enter into our internal matters. This
is how western countries want to enter into our internal matters. I believe it
is totally unacceptable to sacrifice our national security and for economic
reasons. Mangala Samaraweera did this 4 years ago, in front of the world body
without the consent of the president or our parliament. He will suffer for all
his political career for that national crime.
People who can
make a contribution to our society; this is the time to come up by using of
their platform to message and transform for change. One simple example for that
as such the famous Janapriya” Comedy series. Most recent comedy is a wake up call and a message
strongly addressing the public to select the correct candidate in upcoming
election. This is plain and simple what everybody need to do make use of their
platform, people who can influence to make that change. Like wise people who
could make the difference please don’t be silent and
use your platform to message and educate public with creativity. Then only
change will take place and can hope for better. There is huge responsibility
for media. We had enough suffering in this country. Now it is the time to move
forward with the right courageous leadership and every single person bears the
responsibility doing individual part rather than focusing their rights in the
upcoming national election.
Former Cabinet Minister Milinda Moragoda has urged political parties to seriously consider the abolition of the monster Provincial Council system which has cost this country a great deal more than a pretty penny. Six of the existing nine PCs ended their terms in 2018 while the other three went out of office last year and Governors are ruling all provinces. The whole country has been privy to the public slanging match between the previous yahapalana administration and its successor on the non-holding of the PC elections on the due dates and the endless postponing of their polling dates. Nobody has missed the PCs; and their factual non-existence has meant nothing to anybody except those elected to them who enjoyed lavish pay and perks courtesy of the taxpayer.
According to Moragoda who has served in government from both sides of the political divide – the UNP and the SLFP – and narrowly lost the Colombo Mayoralty when he ran against Mr. AJM Muzzamil of the green party fairly recently, the Provincial Council system costs this country over 250 billion rupees annually. He has said in a statement which we run today that “there is little doubt that significant savings and improved efficiency can be achieved through the abolition of this dysfunctional mechanism.” Few will have anything contrary to say about this proposition. It is accepted fact that the majority of our people prefer to deal with the Central Government rather than the Provincial Councils and there is no good reason why we should continue with these elected bodies whose main purpose appears to only serve as stepping stones to Parliament for the political class. First local bodies, then Provincial Councils and finally Parliament appears to be upward route for many of our politicians.
The PCs were set up, or more accurately forced down our throat, by India as a means of solving the ethnic crisis that has for too long bedeviled this nation. There was never any demand for this unit of devolution from anywhere except the north, and to a lesser extent the east, which has long sought a degree of autonomy. But, to borrow the phrase of the late Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali, a star or even superstar of our contemporary political history, “you can’t give to Jaffna what you won’t give to Hambantota.” So the 13th Amendment to our Constitution which, underwritten by India, sought to end the civil war that dragged on for nearly 30 years by the device of what has proved to be a massive white elephant.
Who among us can forget the intrusion into our airspace by Mirage fighter jets of the Indian Air Force, escorting Hercules transport aircraft, for that infamous parippu drop in the north of our country? That was when our troops were on the verge of defeating the terrorist LTTE through Operation Vadmarachchi in May-June 1987. The signal from India was unmistakable. Either Sri Lanka abandons the military campaign to stamp out the Prabhakaran brand of terrorism or India would intervene militarily. President J.R. Jayewardene was forced to eat humble pie and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who flew here for the purpose, and he signed the infamous Indo-Lanka Agreement. This brought the so-called Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) here to keep the LTTE in line. This they failed dismally to do and India lost 1,200 troops and spent several billions fighting what the foreign press often labeled as the “Tamil rebels”.
And so the Provincial Councils, targeting regional autonomy, came into being. Moragoda has said in his statement that while the intention was to create more provincial autonomy, the structure that was created “has proved to be superfluous, expensive, divisive and fraught with inefficiency.” He has argued that “given the increasing ethnic, religious and regional polarization in our society,” we desperately need a viable democratic framework to address these issues. The truth of what he has said was clearly proved at the last presidential election when the winner polled the majority of the Sinhala (Buddhist) majority while the loser polled the majority of the minorities. Moragoda has expressed his belief that the more effective way of achieving this intent would be the creation of an empowered Senate/Upper House that could address critical issues concerning religious, ethnic and regional diversities. This, of course, requires national debate and discussion but for the time being, a clear commitment by the contenders for the National Parliament that they favour the abolition of the PCs will be most valuable.
Although Moragoda is not a runner at the forthcoming parliamentary election, he is clearly influential in our body politic and is known to have assisted the Gotabaya Rajapaksa victory last November. He is also the founder of the Pathfinder Foundation, undoubtedly among the more efficient of our Think Tanks. If his statement running into just one page of concise and tightly-written argument, is adopted by our Political Establishment a most useful objective will be achieved. As an analyst said in a hoary vernacular idiom, setting up the PCs was like “giving ladders to jumping monkeys.” Whatever their stripe, the vast majority of our politicians are widely regarded as monkeys by many of our people.
Milinda Moragoda, Founder of the Pathfinder Foundation and former Cabinet Minister, called on political parties to clearly state their positions on the Provincial Council system in their policy platforms for the forthcoming general elections. He urges parties to consider repealing the 13th Amendment, thereby abolishing the Provincial Council system. Moragoda reiterated his earlier proposal that the Provincial Councils should be abolished and power be directly devolved to empowered and reconfigured local, urban and municipal councils, since these bodies operate closest to the citizenry, and are thus in a better position to address and solve community-level problems.
He argued, that although the original intent of the 13th amendment enacted in 1987 was to create more provincial autonomy in order to help address Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem,
instead this structure has proven to be superfluous, expensive, divisive, and fraught with inefficiency. He stated that given the increasing ethnic, religious and regional polarization in our society, it is important that a viable democratic framework to address these issues be established, and that a much more effective way to achieve this intent, would be the creation of an empowered Senate/Upper House, that could address critical issues concerning religious, ethnic, and regional diversity.
Moragoda pointed out that:
1. The nine provincial councils existing in Sri Lanka had been dissolved and have not been functioning, many for nearly two years:
Sabaragamuwa Province: 26 September 2018
Eastern Province: 30 September 2018
North Central Province: 01 October 2018
Central Province: 08 October 2018
Northwestern Province: 10 October 2018
Northern Province: 25 October 2018
Southern Province: 10 April 2019
Western Province: 21 April 2019
Uva Province: 08 September 2019
The population at large would be able to judge as to whether they have missed their presence during this period.
2. Finally, the Provincial Council system costs Sri Lanka over 250 billion rupees annually and there is little doubt that significant savings and improved efficiency can be achieved through their abolition this dysfunctional mechanism.
June 25, 2020 – The US Supreme Court in a landmark decision today voted in favor of the administration in its appeal against a lower court ruling that allowed a Sri Lankan the right to have a judge review the government’s handling of his asylum bid.
The justices ruled in favor of the Trump administration in its appeal of a lower court ruling that a Sri Lankan farmer named Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam had a right to have a judge review the government’s handling of his asylum bid. In essence, the Supreme Court ruling upholds existing law that asylum seekers who are turned down by immigration officials do not have a right to make their case to a judge.
The ruling written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito enhances the U.S. government’s ability to quickly deport illegal immigrants with limited judicial review and will impact thousands of asylum seekers. Sotomayor, Kagan dissented The ruling written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito enhances the U.S. government’s ability to quickly deport illegal immigrants with limited judicial review and will impact thousands of asylum seekers.
Justice Samuel Alito, found that limiting judicial scrutiny in this rapid deportation case, known as expedited removal, did not violate key safeguards of individual liberty in the U.S. Constitution.
The vote was 7 to 2. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
On February 17, 2017, Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam was apprehended by a US Customs and Border Protection officer at the southern U.S.-Mexico border four miles west of the San Ysidro, California, port of entry. He claimed he faced a credible fear of persecution” if returned to Sri Lanka and was referred to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to be interviewed. An asylum officer determined that he had not established a credible fear of persecution and a supervisor approved the decision.
Thuraissigiam then requested review by an immigration judge who affirmed the negative credible fear and returned the case to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Thuraissigiam’s removal.
In January 2018, Thuraissigiam filed a habeas petition in federal district court, naming as respondents DHS, several of its constituent agencies, and individual agency officials. Thuraissigiam argued that his “expedited removal order violated his statutory, regulatory, and constitutional rights,” sought to vacate the order, and requested relief in the form of a “new, meaningful opportunity to apply for asylum and other relief from removal.”
Thuraissigiam alleged that in Sri Lanka he had been harassed for supporting a Tamil political candidate and that in 2007, he was “detained and beaten” by Sri Lankan army officers who warned him not to support the candidate. He further claimed that in 2014 when he continued to support the same candidate, government intelligence officers kidnapped, bound, and beat him while interrogating him about his political activities. Thuraissigiam alleged that he “was lowered into a well, simulating drowning, threatened with death, and then suffocated, causing him to lose consciousness.”
He said he had been savagely beaten in Sri Lanka by men who had blindfolded and abducted him and that he had spent 11 days in a hospital recovering from his injuries.
Couldn’t identify alleged assailants
While the asylum officer believed” Mr. Thuraissigiam, he rejected his request because he could not identify the assailants or definitively establish their motives.
Subsequently an immigration judge decided Thuraissigiam did not have a credible fear of persecution in Sri Lanka and the US Department of Homeland Seccurity (DHS) began expedited removal proceedings.
His case was then taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on the basis that the current process where potential asylum seekers only get an administrative officer examining their case with no neutral federal judge is flawed and that Thuraissigiam has a right to have his case heard before a federal court.
Ninth Circuit Court ruling
In a win for Thuraissigiam and ACLU, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in March 2019 that asylum seekers are entitled to federal court review of their expedited removal orders.
However, in October, the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court to review the decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Court agreed to review the appeals court ruling that migrants targeted for quick deportation have the right to make their claims before a federal court.
Justice Alito in his opinion for the majority, rejected the lower court’s ruling that the Constitution guarantees a meaningful opportunity” for asylum seekers to make their case to a judge if they are turned down in an initial screening. Alito said the system set up by Congress weeds out patently meritless claims” and provides for quickly removing those making them. Most pass their initial screening, he noted, but those who do not have no additional recourse.
Responding to today’s ruling, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said in a press release: This ruling fails to live up to the Constitution’s bedrock principle that individuals deprived of their liberty have their day in court, and this includes asylum seekers. This decision means that some people facing flawed deportation orders can be forcibly removed with no judicial oversight, putting their lives in grave danger.”
Attorney General Dappula de Livera has returned 40 incomplete investigations files, pertaining to the suspects arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday terror attacks, to the Acting Inspector General of Police.
The Coordinating Officer of the Attorney General said the Acting IGP was also instructed to conclude the investigations properly.
The US Embassy in Sri Lanka says that no MCC grant monies were ever transferred to or spent by the Government of Sri Lanka under the proposed $480 million grant.
MCC-managed funding to support grant preparatory activities — nearly all of which have been canceled or indefinitely postponed pending the Government’s decision on whether to proceed with the grant — was made available under the same highly transparent and accountable procedures used to enable other US development work.” the embassy said issuing a statement.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – a USG development agency – again ranks #1 globally among bilateral donor agencies, it said.
MCC’s strong performance reflects its commitment to data transparency, fair & competitive procurements & rigorous monitoring & evaluation of poverty reducing programs,” the embassy tweeted.
The final report of the Experts Committee appointed to review the proposed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement was handed over to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (25).
The report will be placed before the public later.
The Committee had presented its recommendations following a 6-month long study after careful consideration of opinions, views and suggestions from various sectors of the society including experts, voluntary organizations, public entities and individuals.
Two stages of the MCC had been signed in 2017 and 2018, said the Chairman of the Committee Lalithasiri Gunaruwan, Professor of Economics of University of Colombo. Although USD 7.4 million and 2.6 million had been granted under the two stages, no accounts details are to be found anywhere, Prof. Gunaruwan said.
The Chairman pointed out that no multi-sectorial analysis had been conducted by the focal points of the then Government entrusted with the task of reviewing before the signing of the Compact.
Prof. Gunaruwan said that after the adoption of the project as an Act of Parliament, it would be a violation of the agreement to submit a counter-proposal or a resolution relating to it.
Any condition of the Compact can be amended by two representatives by a letter. Such an action amounts to a violation of the sovereignty of Parliament. It had created a situation where the Attorney General cannot represent the Government or go to Courts, the Chairman said.
The members of the Committee enlightened the President on the current status of countries which had implemented the MCC. They said the fate of these countries is tragic.
The Chairman Prof. Lalithasiri Gunaruwan commended the opportunity given by the President to compile an unbiased report without intervention of any external party, the PMD said.
After considering all these facts, the President directed the Secretary to the President to place the recommendations of the report before the public.
Following a Cabinet decision taken on December 18, 2019, the four-member Committee was appointed with effect from January 01st, 2020.
Former Secretary to the Ministry of Transport Dr. D. S. Jayaweera, President’s Counsel Justice Nihal Jayawardena and architect Nalaka Jayaweera are the other members.
The interim report of the Committee was handed over to the President on February 17th.
Chairman of the committee Professor Lalithasiri Gunarunwan had also presented the final report to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees last evening (24).
The Prime Minister will table the final report at the next Cabinet meeting.
The committee was appointed with effect from January 01, based on a cabinet decision taken on December 18 last year, to conduct a comprehensive study on the agreement and make necessary recommendations to the government.
The government had previously decided to suspend the implementation of the previous government’s decision on signing the agreement until the committee reaches its conclusions.
Prime Minister Rajapaksa had tabled the interim report of the committee to the Cabinet of Ministers.
The Cabinet of Ministers had decided not to sign the Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) in its present form based on the recommendations of the committee.
The committee of experts, in its interim report, concluded that the MCC agreement contains clauses that are not in agreement with the Constitution of Sri Lanka and are detrimental to the sovereignty of the country.
The government said it decided not to sign the agreement taking into consideration several facts concerning the MCC deal such as its obscure manner, inclusion of clauses that are against the country’s Constitution and are detrimental to its sovereignty, inclusion of clauses that can adversely affect national security and national, economic, social and cultural affairs and concerns that sprung up regarding the island nation’s sovereignty, independence and national security.
Leader of the Tamil United Freedom Front (TUFF) Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, whose startling comment on the killing of Army soldiers sparked controversy, has made yet another revelation.
Joining ‘Mokada Wune’ programme on TV Derana, he said, late President Ranasinghe Premadasa, during his administration, had supplied weapons and funds to the LTTE and that he was the one who collected the supply.
Karuna Amman also noted that Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa is attempting to create a false image of him in the minds of Sinhalese people.
The former LTTE commander-turned-politician added that he never intended to underestimate the Sri Lanka Army in his statement.
In the meantime, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in a tweet concerning the controversial statement, said Karuna Amman should also be investigated for wholesale recruitment of child soldiers, a crime under international law.
The UN rights body also stressed that accountability should apply to everyone in Sri Lanka.
Four more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 as of 9.00 pm today (26), says the Ministry of Health.
These fresh cases of novel coronavirus have moved the tally to 2,014.
The Department of Government Information said these patients are arrivals from Pakistan, who are under quarantine at the facilities in Miyankulam (03) and Punanai (01).
Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 recoveries confirmed in Sri Lanka increased to 1,619 earlier today.
According to the Epidemiology Unit’s statistics, 384 active cases are currently under medical care at several hospitals across the country.
Eleven patients have succumbed to the virus to date.
In 2018, Yasmin Sooka representing International Truth & Justice Project administered through the EU funded Foundation for Human Rights South Africa submitted to The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) Sri Lanka, set up by an Act of Parliament, a list of 351 names of persons her entity claims are ‘enforced disappearances’ during the final phase of the conflict. The ITJP website however has a list of 425 names, none of whom are CIVILIANS but all of whom are either LTTE combatant or a member of a LTTE family (Mahaveer). This exposes Sooka based on her own report. The entire basis for claiming war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide was based on the allegation that the Sri Lankan Army indiscriminately killed UNARMED CIVILIANS NOT ENGAGED IN ANY FORM OF HOSTILITIES. Returning fire in an armed conflict is allowed by rule of war as is the proportionality of collateral damage, all of which absolves the Sri Lanka Armed Forces of committing willful killing given that they brought to safety close to 300,000 Tamils at the sacrifice of thousands soldiers and over 1000 soldiers still remain missing, while engaged in battle with an armed terrorist movement even banned internationally. We all expected Sooka & ITJP to produce lists of civilians that they alleged the Sri Lankan Armed Forces had killed or made to disappear. Instead she is presenting over 400 LTTE combatants & their families. The Sri Lanka Armed Forces saved close to 300,000 Tamils including 12,000 LTTE among whom were 594 child soldiers. This speaks volumes and exposes Sooka & ITJP as a voice for not Tamil civilians but LTTE.
Total list of names = 425 (not 428 as there are duplicates)
Total male LTTE combatants = 321
Total female LTTE combatants = 71
Which means out of 425 named by Sooka 392 are LTTE male or female ‘missing’
Some of the females are wives of LTTE while some wives are also LTTE combatants or working in some administrative position within the LTTE Inc.
There are unfortunately 32 children mentioned in this report as missing – all from Mahaveer families where either father, mother or both are LTTE combatants. It was highly unlikely that they would have attempted to cross over to Government side but would have remained till the end and probably had no choice given that they had to follow orders.
LTTE FEMALE COMBATANTS
Of the 71 female combatants in the ITJP missing” list – all holding positions of importance
7 female combatants – Malathy Regiment holding rank of Lt. Col
1 female combatant – Commander of Malathy Regiment
1 female combatant – Commander of Women’s Lt. Col. Kutty Sri Motor Regiment.
1 female combatant – Deputy in charge of Women’s Development Organisation.
1 female combatant – Ex-Commander of Siruththai Regiment (married to a senior LTTE)
1 female combatant – Head of English college run by Father Francis.
1 female combatant – In Charge of the LTTE’s Women’s Head Office
1 female combatant – In charge of “Nithersanam” ( LTTE TV ) Women Unit
1 female combatant – In-charge of Women Development Organization.
1 female combatant – Lt Col Radha Anti Air Craft Regiment as a Map Section
1 female combatant – female helper of Father Francis (very interesting)
Can Yasmin Sooka/ITJP produce a list of CIVILIAN MISSING instead LTTE TERRORISTS
ITJP attached photos but only 2 female combatants were in LTTE uniform.
The rest were in casual clothing.
The oldest female combatant is born in 1963 – 36years
The youngest female combatant is 16years (3 such combatants)
All the disappeared are cited in 2009 except 1 where date is not mentioned. Location of disappearance is cited as
Mathalan – 1
Wadduwakkal –
Mullaiwakkal – 15
Nandikadal Lagoon – 4
PTK – 2
Omanthai – 1
Valayanmadam – 5
Vallipuram – 1
Another noteworthy feature that questions who these WITNESSES” making allegations are gets exposed by Sooka’s report itself.
One of the female combatants from the Sothiya brigade (photo wearing a LTTE uniform) is claimed to be missing by HER SISTER. Is she a LTTE female combatant too?
All of these witnesses had to have been directly or indirectly part of LTTE to have been able to recognize the LTTE combatants.
Other witnesses cited by ITJP are
112 – on 3 LTTE female combatants
127 – cites 1 child of LTTE family
129 – on 2 LTTE female combatants
185 – claims to have seen this female combatant standing in a line to cross the Wadduwakkal Bridge on 17 May 2009. That the witness says the female combatant was not with her husband reveals the witness was known to the female combatant.
191 – has identified Father Francis helper
60 & 191 – identified the LTTE combatant heading Father Francis school
There are some unimagineable comments in the ITJP report where ITJP claims families ‘personally handed over LTTE combatants to the Army” while there are letters” sent from one end of war zone to the other end as if some form of courier operation existed during the height of battle.
LTTE MALE COMBATANTS
ITJP reports cites 321 Male LTTE combatants
ITJP gives photos of 18 male combatants in LTTE uniform – the rest are identified as LTTE by their designations.
5 are personal body guards of Prabakaran / Col Ramesh
Head of Voice of Tiger
There are commanders of various LTTE regiments – ImranPandiyan, Radha, Col. Kitty Artillery unit, Charles Anthony Special regiment, Lt Col Kuttysri Mortar Regiment, Special Commander of the LTTE Sniper Regiment.
Top LTTE heading intelligence units, administrative units, LTTE engineering section, and financial units, LTTE student’s organisation. In-charge of vehicles, War Heroes’ Dept. In-charge of LTTE television services (TTN) In-charge of officers training college & in-charge of military science academy. Second in charge of Sea Tigers.
Internationally banned TRO representatives also
Tamil Eelam education dept, Tamil Eelam Jewellery business,
Deputy International Head of LTTE, military spokesperson for LTTE. Deputy Head of LTTE Police
You will be surprised at some of the other designations of these LTTE missing” that Sooka is shedding crocodile tears for.
The oldest LTTE is 1944 born & in charge of external audits for LTTE Financial Wing (65 years)
The youngest LTTE are 2 born in 1992 (just 17 years)
W46 claims to have seen 3 LTTE with Father Francis
W51 claims he saw 2 LTTE taken away after surrendering
W67 claims he was 14 LTTE put into a bus in Wadduwakkal but he also sees 1 LTTE in Omanthai on the same day!
W99 saw 9 LTTE surrender with Father Francis. Now why would Father Francis need to surrender?
W112 has seen 28 LTTE surrender with Father Francis and obviously knows much about the persons surrendering. We have to presume these ‘witnesses’ are themselves LTTE to be able to give such details to ITJP.
THE LTTE CHILDREN
Daughters 19
Photos are available of all
One girl is mentioned as being a day old baby but the photo given against her name is of a girl well over 1year – ITJP claims surrendered herself to the Army”
7 children’s birthdays are not given while the youngest is 2years and the eldest is 25years (Nadesan’s daughter)
ITJP claims all 19 disappeared on 18thMay 2009 from Wadduwakkal
Complaints have been filed for 5 of the 19.
Sons: 13
Photos are available of 12 sons except 1
ITJP claims one child disappeared on 21 April in Puthumathalan while all others are cited as 18 May from Wadduwakkal.
The oldest son is 14 years while the youngest is 3 years.
The OISL Case 2 (320) cites the son of a senior LTTE commander
There are in all 26 witnesses whose credibility has to be questioned while also wondering if they too were in Army custody, how they managed to escape. Are they actually real witnesses or are these stories being made up? How did they land up overseas & linked to Sooka?
Why is it that Sooka’s entity has not presented a single CIVILIAN ‘missing’? How can missing LTTE be accepted as ‘civilian’ missing for which OMP is being manipulated to give compensation to families.
Shouldn’t LTTE Inc that must be generating more than $500m annual profits be looking after the families of these fighters given that they fought for their bogus Eelam cause? Why should the Sri Lankan tax payers pay compensation to LTTE families when these LTTE women & men took up arms against the State. Compensating REAL civilians is a different issue but Sooka’s list of LTTE presented to the OMP cannot be accepted as civilian dead and the OMP cannot recommend any compensation to these LTTE families.
The Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission Report of November 2011 declared 22,247 LTTE dead of which 11,812 had been identified by name. However, 10,435 LTTE dead had not been identified by the time LLRC report was released in November 2011.
Is this 10,435 LTTE dead included as ‘civilians’ in the OMP list of 18,586 (of which 5000 are Missing Sri Lankan Soldiers)
It is the task of Sri Lanka Defense Ministry to see if Sooka’s 425 LTTE ‘Missing” are in the 10,435 LTTE dead who have yet to be identified.
The international entities who have fallen prey to SOOKA & her ITJP reports must seriously question her on why she is presenting LTTE COMBATANTS as CIVILIANS.
What took place was a non-international armed conflict. LTTE were no angels. They were an armed group, they had hierarchical power structure and was in fact the world’s only terrorist organization that had a sea wing – air attack plus ran police, courts, educational outlets, stores, pharmacies (all from medicines confiscated by the govt) and even forestry departments!
Sooka and ITJP have no right to present terrorists as civilians. This is completely negating and demeaning the status given to civilians in an armed conflict.
All the tamashas regarding civilian dead is in reality tamashas for LTTE dead. What is taking place is revenge by LTTE remnants against vanquishing their terrorist colleagues.
Land is
the wealth of the country, the wealth of the people. 480 Million Dollars when
received, the lands will be privatized the government will be
landless. This, they say, is the mantra to alleviate poverty .
MCC has at the moment a
crash program for e registration, with US citizens working with diplomatic
immunity in 10 of our land registries . .The history of our lands, the
history of our country is being ingeniously erased with the entry of the
e-register, with a ;law already introduced by the World Bank
. The destruction of all ‘paper’ deeds and the control of the e-register,
without recording the history of ownership . The land is a number, the owner is
another number. In another 100 years people would have forgotten that the land
belonged to the Sri Lankans as all records in the e register is the present
owner .
e-register, being in
English will not be accessible to the majority of the Sri Lankans, who are not
savvy in English or computer literate. Getting
use to owning land with a 12 digit number is coming and its impact will be like
a Tsunami . –The 12 digits are made up of
i. First two digits to
identify the District.
ii. Next four digits to
identify the Village/ GN division in the District.
Hope the people understand that the
‘change’ was done in the prosperous nations with 3 decades of legal
research with local professors of law in charge of drafting statutes to suit
the local land owners. We have telescoped this project to a 5 years without
any local inputs: legal, professional and research. Is it not ironic
that USA has a recording system .Their ownership and history
is not erased .
Will the
land registries working only in Tamil and Sinhala be working only in
English
Will the
entire process be fully automated without any paper ?
Will the 200000 books recording the history of our
land ownership in 45 land registries be abandoned. Have the
authorities found a safe place to archive them ? Will
they be removed to another foreign museum
Will all
the poor who receive Government land be and their notaries be
conversant with the new laws and electronic systems
Who will
have the ability to put things right if there are viruses or cyber
attacks
When
Corona COVID 19 arrived we had competent Doctors, will we have competent
lawyers and IT specialists to counter cyber attack?
[ owners
will have no deeds ]
The
voters must study and be ready to own land in an
e era with the Land Information System already in place today
Question
to be asked ? Deeds are very important for poor land owners, they
and their notaries do not have computers and internet . How
did we repeal every law and institution and abolish the deeds .
How do countries such as USA , Netherlands and South Africa
have e registers with deeds ? They have not repealed all their laws to
introduce e registration.
Please
see Deputy Survey Generals request retain your deeds . He says
retain your deeds . He is correct , as the matter one day will be decided
by the Judiciary , until then it is advisable to retain deeds although the
section 53 Of Act 21 of 1998 permits to destroy the deeds that enter the owners
in the Electronic Register.
Over to
the voter study and be ready to own land with electronics with no deeds .
The law does not permit access to court either to save your lands from fraud .
Our lands are being set up for plunder. Only lawful orders have to be complied
with by public servants; any order against the law and the Constitution, the
public servants have a right and a duty to not comply
Here
is the e register
Owners please study the Land
Information System [LIS]”Plans of your land blocks would be registered in the
land registry with the owners’ name. Each block will get an identification
number of twelve digits and the owner would be able to view his ownership
through the computer using the 12 digit number,” No more deeds . New land law
to practice with LIS given The new statutes Act 21 of
1998 , Electronic Transactions Act 19 of 2006 Computer crimes Act 24 of 2007 and gazette 1886/58 -31st
October 2014 . Many more to come — look
out
The 12 digits
are made up of
i. First two digits to
identify the District.
ii. Next four digits to
identify the Village/ GN division in the District.
At last Sri Lanka seems to have got a
sensible CEO to run our national carrier which has been a huge burden to the
country. The clearest indication is the above action taken by the airline
according to a news item in the News First. He has also suspended the services
of non-essential staff in order to reduce the burden on the treasury, perhaps
temporarily.
Our country is situated in an
enviable position. This is the reason
some countries including India is trying hard to acquire these valuable assets
like ports and airport. This is another reason why the prez should appoint
achievers like this CEO to other strategic institution like CEB, ports etc.
Covid-19 pandemic has shown that our
land has some other attributes that we can market if handled properly. When we
look at the way Corona has affected our country in relation to many others, one
can easily see that it does not affect the community in anyway; it is only
those coming from overseas that are affected and not those living in the
country. We can easily attribute this to the local food, water etc . Perhaps
this may be one of the reasons there is a big demand for our vegetables,
chicken, fish etc these days. I am sure marketing these items to the world can be
promoted together with tourism without any additional expenditure.
If the Prez can have a good team like
this he can definitely make a difference in our country within a short time.
Provisions for
this so-called National list were introduced by amending Sec 62 of the1978
Constitution by the14th Amendment on 28.5.1988. Sec 62 of the 1978 Constitution
provides only for 196 MPP. This was an increase of 28 from 168 seats
representing 160 electorates in 1970.
After I year of
making the 1978 Constitution it was amended and 196 was increased to 225 by the
14th Amendment which states.
Artcle 62 of the 1978 Constitution is hereby
amended by the repeal of (1) of that article and the substitution of the
following paragraph therefore.
‘There shall be
a Parliament which shall consist of two hundred and twenty-five Members elected
in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution” (Note 225 elected).
Although it is said here, the 225 are elected, actually there were only 196
elected members. The balance 29 came through a new invention called the
National List introduced in article 8 of 14th Amendment. Under this Amendment
provision was made for the EC to appoint another 29 members to Parliament from
the lists submitted by the respective parties at the time of nominations going
by the number of votes polled by each party at the election. Since they were taken in only from lists
submitted outside the nomination list to contest elections by the parties and
they were never elected by the people at the election, it is not correct to say
all 225 were elected as stated in the 14th A. This was a willful violation of
the country’s Constitution enacted a year ago. Instead it would have been
better and more appropriate to have them called the 29 appointed members, thus
calling a spade a spade.
The said
amendment enacts by declaring that these 29 candidates submitted by political
parties at the time of handing over nominations for the election the CE shall
apportion them among the political parties or Independent groups in the same
proportion which the number of votes polled by each party enabling them to be members
of Parliament, although they were not physically elected by the people. This is
a fabricated lie. The process adopted here is a devious and mischievous attempt
by JR, only to give legitimacy to an illegitimate process designed by him to
enable the political parties to send their faithful to enter Parliament through
the back door bypassing the sovereignty of the people given to them to elect
their representatives. This is another dirty political trick by JR to increase
his power and consolidate his authority in the House as if the 196 elected by
the people is not enough to carry out the functions of the House. This was an increase of 57 members over the
1970 number and it constitutes the first additional burden imposed by JR on the
heads of the tax payers, with no benefit to the people at all. Accordingly the
introduction of the National list was malafide ipso facto.
If you look at the National Lists submitted by
various political parties this time you will find the ugliness of this system
and to what sad levels it has been brought to by self-seeking political party
leaders. This comment is particularly relevant to the SJBV list of Sajit led by
Tissa Attanayaka, who can never win a seat anywhere in the country at this
election. Added to this insult is Harin Fernando. Going back to the UNP list we
see John Amaratunga, at the top of the list as if he is the most important and
indispensable law maker who should be in Parliament of Sri Lanka. What a
miserable selection t0 head a list of a national party. The SLPP list appears
to be different this time.
One wonders as
to what contribution these jokers have made to public life in this country in
their long stay in politics other than making their own purses fat and
supporting their leaders in parliament to ruin the country over the years.
Unfortunately
this aspect has never being contested by anybody either inside or outside the
Parliament, except a brief comment by Chandani Kongaha made last week in Kandy.
Therefore it has opened the doors of the so-called August Assembly for
undesirable 29 more parasitic political henchmen to get in to Parliament,
thereby adding further burden to the tax payers, only for the benefit of
politicians, converting the government to be a government by the politicians,
for the politicians and of the politicians, fundamentally the opposite of what
democracy is supposed to be. The idea of a National list I think finds its
roots in the 6 Nominated MPP under the Soulbury Constitution and it continued
up to 1977 with mixed results, both positive and negative. Jennings made
provisions for it for a different purpose, invariably bona fide. That is to
find representation for those elements not represented in Parliament through
the elected. At the initial stages all appointed MPP were white men
.Subsequently it changed to trade union leaders and minority
representatives to woo their vote rather
that their capacity to improve the quality of law making.
The National
list of JR on the other hand was shrewdly and cunningly designed entirely for
accommodating their kith and kin and favorites who cannot come to Parliament
through elections, first in order to enable them to enjoy the luxuries of
political plums and second for party leaders to have a set of MPP reliable MPP
in Parliament to provide against a rainy day who will not be answerable for
recalling at subsequent elections or before even If they act against the public
will and also who will vote in favor of
any legislation presented by their party leaders as they depends entirely on
them for their political survival. These
backdoor intruders were heavily used by JR to bring in 16 Amendments to the
1978 Constitution within 2 years of its enactment, all passed for the benefit
of the UNP and broadly for politicians
only. Look at the enhanced benefits and
privileges like increased salaries and perks such as full pension benefits in 5
years that is passed on to their wives
as well, duty free vehicles, liquor bars, petrol sheds Government contracts and
other financial benefits like the DCB money, often misused, disbursed through
them in the Districts and so on.
President
Sirisena misused this provision in 2015 to get the number of his SLFP votes in
Parliament increased unconstitutionally and unethically by appointing even
those who were rejected by the people at the 2015 elections. Few cases in point
were S.B Disanayaka and Vijitamuni Zoysa. By doing so he not only violated the
Constitution but also murdered the fundamental principles of all democratic
values.
What is worse is
these henchmen are not answerable and responsible to the people but only to
their Party leaders who have put them there, made democracy a real joke and an
open mockery in this country. These law makers under these circumstances only
look after the interests of their leaders and their own. Under this situation
democracy needs to be redefined in a new context in this country where
universal franchise was granted even before the UK did it..
One can see
further deterioration with this parachute list when you look at the list of political
rejects submitted by the parties to fill I this time. Usually the names that
appear at the top of the lists depend solely and entirely on personal
considerations that has nothing to do with law making for the good of the
people. This reference applies particularly to the UNP and the Jana Bala Wegaya
of Sajit Premadasa.. The only way to prevent these nefarious elements coming to
Parliament is to not to cast a single vote to these parties in protest so that
these jokers will not find entry in to Parliament. Thereby the voters can do
a very big job to save democracy in this
country.
As for me I am
vehemently opposed to this undemocratic, anti-national and waste full national
list that serves no purpose at all to the country or the people but only breeds
corruption and erosion of democracy in this country. T
Therefore I
strongly recommend that the next Government scrap this nuisance at the first
opportunity it gets after the election under a new Constitution for this
country and also even the number of MPP in Parliament should be reduced to
about 150 so that we have a pruned Parliament affordable to the country instead
of having a white elephant Parliament, a virtual paradise for politicians, as
we have it today. I am sure such action on the part of the new Government will
tremendously increase its popularity among the masses for decades to come, as
they see that at last a people friendly government has emerged after 72 years
of independence and 205 years of repressive foreign colonial rule in this country.
The
Election Commission was back to the wall after the Supreme Court
decision. No doubt its members were disappointed. Now
the EC is ostensibly trying to curry favour the President.
The
Health Department Guidelines on the Covid19 to hold the elections were
discussed at length and agreed. The Covid 19 guidelines in a
country faced with a pandemic will not be an ever lasting
solution. For example, the State of Melbourne, which was
performing well 3 weeks ago, is now under the spot light.
This could happen in Sri Lanka as well.
The
EC would prefer the escalation of Covid19 within next 40
days. Therefore, it is now finding ways and means of exposing the
President by virtually forcing him to make directives that will
help their aims.
Last
time, the EC has asked the President to seek the Supreme Court
determinations on the recalling of the defunct Parliament.
That was none of their business. The President asked them to MYOB
(mind your own business).
Now
they are requesting the President to issue a Gazettte in
respect of the Health Guidelines issued by the Department of Health in
respect of the General Election.
If
a Gazette is issued as per existing guidelines, then due to unforeseen
circumstances where situation change for better or worse, the
EC will request to amend the Gazette.
For
example, some political parties are demanding to increase the number of
participants in political gatherings from 100 to 500. The EC
commission is more than likely to endorse the request, but will announce
that the Gazette must be amended to increase the maximum
stipulation from 100 to 500. This will be a never ending saga of
amending Gazettes, similar to actions of former President Maithreepala
Sirisena.
The
President has already thrown the previous request of the EC to seek
Supreme Court determination to WPB (waste paper basket).
JUST
AS MUCH AS EC is trying to make the job difficult for the President, the
President need to keep the untrustworthy institutions and its
personnel in the right place.
Some
atheists claim that this universe is in existence from ever and it will last
forever. If this universe is in existence from ever, then it must have infinite
source of power and energy, but we see that no material thing is infinite in
this universe. The temperature of Sun is falling down, even the earth is
cooling off. All the sources of energy in this universe are being consumed up
and exhausting.
So
the world is approaching to its end as was prophesied by all the religions. It
proves that the universe came into being a finite time ago and it also has a
definite end. We know from our whole life’s experience, that if we consider any
process, there are only two possibilities, that a process is either started by
some human beings, or it might be a result of some other process. If we move
back in this tree of processes which are a result of some other process,
ultimately we shall come across a process, which could not be attributed to any
other process. At that place, we are left with no other argument, except to
believe that it was started by some Super being. We refer to that super being
as ‘GOD’, some atheists call this Super Being by the name of ‘nature’. Actually
just giving a different name to this Super Being really does not make much
difference, they believe in GOD, and all they need is just a little fine
tuning.
